In like a lion and out like a lamb

It's Friday night, which, in my world, means Hubs is working late and I'm on munchkin duty with the little one.  The munchkin is snoozing, so it's time to finally post.  Such an exciting life I lead, right?  The thing is, I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Well, I guess I wouldn't complain if Hubs made it home before I crashed, but I'll take what I can get!

Ok, onto school stuff.

Growing up in San Diego's year round sunshine, I never quite understood this whole, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" saying.  Bad weather?  What's that?  I now live in the Bay Area,  and the crazy winds and rain definitely add some perspective to this saying.

Now, add in the terrible tornadoes that ravaged so many poor towns during the last week or so, and my first graders came to school asking questions about these severe storms, why they happened, and if they would happen to us.  After talking it out, we wrote a class letter to one of the elementary schools affected by the storms.  We wished them well, and we included a book from our class library to help re-start theirs.  

The saying I mentioned above kept playing over and over in my head, and so I brought it up with my students.  Idioms and sayings are challenging for ELLs, but this one was pretty easy for them to grasp.  After comparing/contrasting the two animals, we started our lions.  I LOVE how they turned out.  Each one is so unique and has the exact personality of the artist who created it.  We then wrote a super quick describing poem about lions, each one ending with a great big ROAR!

Time to create a little lamb.  Cue the cotton balls!  We whipped up another quick describing poem, and we ended this one with, you guessed it, BAA!  I just adore how they came out!  

Here's hoping that March gets the memo and ends with calm, warm, and sunny weather!  Here are the links to the lamb and lion patterns and poems.

Time to sign off.  I've got a bottle of wine calling my name.  Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Meghan